


Neophobia

by Feneris



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Cat Jean, Cat eren, Cats don't like each other, Community: snkkink, Gen, Remember: Always get your cat fixed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 15:12:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1822966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feneris/pseuds/Feneris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cats do not like new things. Be it a new brand of cat food, a new baby, or gods forbid, a new cat.</p><p>A stray cat follows Mikasa home and she decides to adopt it. She names it Jean.</p><p>Unfortunately she already has a cat, Eren, and he is not pleased.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neophobia

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, this story was based on my own experience with the way my cats react to any new kitten being brought into the house. Or when I switched cat food brands, or when a new friend comes over to visit. The prompt on the SnK kinkmeme was basically as the summery suggests, Mikasa brings home cat!jean and cat!eren is outraged.
> 
> And remember folks, always get your cats spayed or neutered. Feral cat populations are major problems all over the world.

Cats by nature do not like new things. Be a new brand of cat food, a new person in the house, a new baby, or god forbid, a new cat.

Mikasa was learning that the hard way. It had started out innocently enough, with a grey tomcat taking a liking to her and following her when she walked home from work. After a few weeks of this, she had started asking around and discovered that the friendly cat following her home was a stray. It was then Mikasa decided she was going to adopt him, he seemed friendly and healthy enough, and seemed to like her.

Jean was a good name she though.

The problems came from the fact that Mikasa already had a cat. A brown tabby named Eren. Mikasa had gotten Eren as a kitten when she was sixteen, after her parents had been murdered during a break-in and she had gone under the care of her Aunt Carla and Uncle Grisha. Eren had provided her the desperately needed emotional support to get through those dark days.

The thing was, Eren was also a fighter, and considered it his solemn duty to murder any intruder that set so much as a paw on Mikasa's front lawn. Be it mice, squirrels, raccoons, songbirds, or even coyotes. He nearly been disemboweled picking a fight with a bald eagle and shot twice when he attacked a burglar. Annie, Mikasa's neighbor across the street owned two large dogs, a great dane named Bertholdt and a pit bull named Reiner. Both dogs were scared shitless of Eren. Needless to say, the "Beware of Cat" sign on Mikasa's front lawn was not the joke it was originally intended as.

So when Mikasa had come home and dumped Jean onto the front room carpet. Eren had simply froze. His green eyes had narrowed in a glare of pure hatred and his hair stood on end. A deep warning growl emanated from his chest.

Jean to his credit, did not back down, he arched his back and hissed right back. Slowly, the two of them circled each other, snarling and hissing. Then Eren lunged.

Mikasa had barely enough time to snatch Jean up before Eren got him. "Eren!" She snapped, "Behave!" She sat down on the couch, put Jean in her lap, and began petting him. Jean for his part merely closed his eyes and let out a loud contented purr. Eren slunk over to the chair opposite and sat down, never once taking his eyes off Jean and letting out a continuous loud growl.

That was only the beginning. Eren continued to see Jean continued existence as an affront to everything he presumably stood for. Not a single night had gone by when Mikasa was not woken up by the sounds of snarling, shrieking, and two cats tearing down the halls at some godforsaken hour in the morning. Jean had taken to climbing the curtains and bookshelves to get away from Eren, and Eren in turn did the same thing just to try and get at Jean. Everything Jean did seemed to provoke a violent response from Eren. Mikasa had seen Jean calmly walking down the hall, only to have Eren shot out of bedroom and lay into him.

Once Mikasa had gotten so fed up with the continuous fighting, she had grabbed Eren and tossed him outside. Eren had been so outraged by this affront, he had killed two robins and left their decapitated bodies right on the front step. He had also come close to murdering the new neighbor's chihuahua, when the dumb little dog decided he was going to play a game of chase the cat with the cat next door. (The 911 operator had just sighed and shaken her head.)

Her house now looked like a war zone. That compounded with the nights she had been woken up by fighting cats, had pushed Mikasa to the very edge of her sanity.

\---

"What happened to your hand!?" Armin asked in alarm as Mikasa sat down across from him.

"Made the mistake of trying to separate Eren and Jean," Mikasa replied, gesturing with her bandaged hand. "I don't even know which one got me. I was all a blur of fur and claws. I don't know why Eren can't get along with Jean."

"Honestly," Armin said. "I'm surprised you expected anything different. You're talking about the cat that will attack the mailman if he so much as puts a toe over the property line."

Mikasa rolled her eyes, conceding the point. "But it's been over a month, surely Eren should have at least started to tolerate him now."

"Honestly, Mikasa, Eren's a cat and a male one at that. They're very territorial, you know that. Eren's got his territory and he will kill to defend it. Then you've gone along and dumped a new competitor right into the middle of what he considers his sovereign territory. Think of it, the first thing Eren's going to do is get rid of the intruder. He's probably feeling betrayed and confused by the fact you aren't doing the same."

Mikasa paused, she hadn't thought of it like that. Now that she thought of it, Armin's words did make sense. No wonder Eren hadn't let up, he was probably worried she was going to replace him with Jean.

"Do you think there's anything I can do to get them to stop fighting at least?" Mikasa asked.

"Well..." Armin paused to consider something. "Has Eren been neutered?"

"No. Never had a problem with him spraying things."

"What about Jean?"

Mikasa paused. "I don't think so."

"That's probably the crux of the problem right there," Armin explained. "Two unneutered male cats in the same territory. Maybe you should consider getting one of them fixed? That might solve the problem right then and there."

That, actually sounded like a good idea.

\---

When she had gotten home. Mikasa had found Jean perched at the top of one of the bookshelves, with Eren crouched at the bottom debating his chances of scaling the shelf himself.

"Eren, Jean come here!" Mikasa whistled.

Eren turned to look at her, got one glance at the look on her face, and bolted off to that mysterious place cats go to hide when they don't want to be found.

Jean watched him go with a look Mikasa could only describe as both confused and triumphant.

"Come here Jean," Mikasa whistled again. Jean leaned over peering around for any sign of Eren, before jumping to the floor and trotting over to Mikasa purring all the way.

"That's a good cat," Mikasa cooed, stroking Jean's grey fur. Then she struck.

The next thing Jean knew, he was inside Mikasa's grey plastic cat carrier and was being carried out to the car. Mikasa grabbed her phone and hit the number at the top of the speed dial.

"Hello, Shiganshina Veterinary Clinic? I was wondering if I could drop in to get my cat fixed?"

The last thing Jean saw before the car door slammed closed, was Eren perched on the windowsill, smug as could be.


End file.
